With a length of nearly 35 meters, the Marine Artillerie Leichter (MAL) were the smallest landing craft in Kriegsmarine services. Designed after the requirements of the German Army, those small vehicles should be used during Operation Barbarossa, the attack on  the Soviet Union. Their projected operational area was the Caspian Sea where the MAL should be used to attack Soviet oil transports from Baku to Astrakhan. Therefore the MAL must have been able to be transported by land which was impossible with the bigger MNL or AFPs.

With the progress of the war, the Marine Nachschub Leichter operated in other areas like the Black Sea or the Mediterranean.